Repreach? Repeat? Rerun? Or Retread?
When I first started preaching, the thought of re-preaching an old sermon seemed like sacrilege. Of course, I didn’t have any sermons that were worth repeating. Still, for many years and through several ministries, I balked at the idea of presenting a sermon that I had preached before.
Over time opportunities to return to an old message presented themselves. None were what I had dreaded—Saturday nights of desperation when I finally pulled out an old sermon file and, with flop sweat beaded on my forehead, gave myself over to the temptation of preaching a rerun. Instead, they were calls to return to a message I had poured life into and allow it to live anew.
Not a Rerun, but a Retread
This is not to say that times of desperation never come. A busy week hits, and you’re short on time to prepare a message. Or, an already preached text finds its way into your preaching plan. Whatever the impetus, what do you do? Struggle to write something new? Find a fresh angle on an already familiar text?
Or do you take the old sermon you’ve already poured time, energy, and prayer into and freshen it up? Not re-preaching it as much as renovating, revitalizing, and retreading the sermon.
Previously, in my younger days, reusing old sermon material seemed lazy and wrong. What if I get caught? What if some sweet little old lady in the congregation comes up to me after church and says, “I remember you preaching that same sermon seven years ago on March 20th!”
Why Retread?
If you spend any time on interstate highways, you see those familiar pieces of retread tires lying on the shoulders. “Road Gators,” they call them. While they’re annoying and dangerous, as I looked at the process of retreading tires, it seemed the perfect metaphor for preparing a sermon to be preached again.
Much like the tires, you’re taking something useful and giving it new life to be useful again. Often, it’s a matter of taking that tread—the part that makes contact and has traction in the hearts of our hearers, and giving it new life.
It’s not that it was a bad sermon, but it may have a bit of wear and tear on it. At the very least, you recognize that the time, situation, and audience likely differ from when you first preached it. It needs reworking to make a fresh impact again.
In Defense of the Retread Sermon
A “canned” message is a sermon preached more than two times. It’s deadly. Not only for the audience, but also for your own soul. Why? Preaching canned messages often involves “going through the motions.” You’re preaching to preach. Pushing yourself to preach new material will drive you back to the text and desperate reliance on God.
-Chris Pascarella, 7 Deadly Sins of Guest Preaching
Craddock on Retreads
In his classic work, Preaching, Fred B. Craddock wrote:
There is a fiction abroad among preachers that the familiar is without interest, without power, and without prophetic edge. Because this is believed to be the case, some very good sermons are never preached a second time, or if they are, the preacher feels guilty and knows that all the homiletical brows in all the seminaries of the world have been lowered in dark disapproval.
– Fred Craddock, Preaching, page 45
Craddock recognized that the preacher would occasionally need to repeat a message. Harry Farra’s The Sermon Doctor: Prescriptions for Successful Preaching contains a checklist for effective preaching. Number 14 on the checklist is the question, “Is this a sermon worth repeating?“ Far from a deadly sin, the worthiness of repetition is an excellent criterion for evaluating an effective sermon.
How to Effectively Retread a Sermon
Sooner or later, you will repeat texts. What will you do differently? Can you reuse old material and still bring something fresh?
Previously when you preached it, some people were absent, others were sleeping, and others were wondering what they would have for lunch. You’ve already studied the passage and worked through the issues of how to preach it. What would it take to retread the sermon and bring new life so it makes contact once again?
Freshen Up the Introduction
It would be best to never retread a sermon without reworking the introduction. Likely, there was nothing wrong with the original introduction, but it served its purpose for the previous occasion. It may have been part of a different series. It may contain artifacts from a different time or season (a season of the year or your life).
J.K. Jones writes in Letting the Text Win, “A good beginning to a sermon is like reliable transportation. It’s like starting up a car and traveling toward a specific destination.“ That destination may have changed since the last time you preached the sermon. You might be bringing an entirely new emphasis in this iteration.
In some cases, it isn’t a matter of retreading the sermon as much as attaching snow chains. In other words, you might need something with extra traction due to a difficult season. You may find a personal illustration worked well when previously preached, but a story from the congregation’s life better illustrates the message now that it’s had some time to live in the church.
Tighten Up the Big Idea
I am a big believer in boiling the sermon down to one sentence. I spend much of my sermon preparation on that sentence, choosing words full of meaning that will connect with the audience. There are weeks when, until the last moment, I am sharpening that sentence, shaping it for the listeners.
Retreading a sermon is an excellent opportunity to try to get that sentence right—or more right! You know how well that sentence connected the previous time, so make adjustments as needed. And it may very well be that this version will require a very different big idea than its predecessor.
Time to be Winsome!
The good news is, if you put great time and effort into crafting that one sentence, you’ve already laid the groundwork! Rather than hours crafting the sentence, you could spend time honing and shaping it to make better contact. As Haddon Robinson wrote:
The language used in the (Big Idea) should be both winsome and compelling without being sensational. Does it sparkle? Does it grab hold of a listener’s mind? Can I remember it easily? Is it worth remembering? Does the language communicate effectively to modern men and women? While personal tastes enter at this point, these questions are worth asking.
-Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching, page 99
While I love that quote, I’ve often thought, “I’ve got a sermon to get done before Sunday. I don’t have time to be winsome!”
Maybe this time around, I will!
Slap On a New Set of Illustrations
One afternoon in high school, I helped a friend clean his car before heading out for a night on the town. He insisted all we needed to do was clean the tires and shine the rims, and no one would notice how dirty the car was.
Examples of Retreads
When I think of retreading a sermon, I cannot help but think of my friend Gary Salm. In college, Gary signed on to student preach at several churches in the area. It seemed that, more often than not, he would return and tell us how the “Judge Not” sermon went. He preached the same message repeatedly, trying it out on different congregations and constantly honing it a bit. He recently told me the sermon still makes its way into his preaching decades later!
I look back now and realize what Gary was doing with that sermon was brilliant! A new audience every week allowed him to see what worked and what needed to work better. When the time came, he was able to move on to the next sermon more aware of how to prepare it.
“Playing Hurt,” by Wayne Smith
Wayne Smith, longtime senior minister of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, first preached his sermon “Playing Hurt,” on Super Bowl Sunday, 1983. He returned to that message every year with fresh sets of illustrations and further honed delivery. Various iterations of the sermon can be found online in both video and text form.
It Is Finished
Several examples of my own retreading exist on this blog. The best example is likely the Easter sermons I preached back-to-back, two Easters in a row.
As I state in the article, holidays are common candidates for retreading. Rather than viewing this in a negative light, you may find that specific sermons have become messages your congregation appreciates hearing again and welcomes when you choose to repeat them.
(Given the state of the car, all people noticed was how surprising it was that it was still running!)
I’ve often thought about that story in terms of preaching. People notice and remember illustrations. Therefore, if you’re going to preach the same sermon again, make sure you give the sermon fresh illustrations. Chances are they needed freshening up anyway!
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
The retreading of a sermon is an excellent time to remind ourselves that we are not using illustrations simply to tell stories. If we’ve already worked out the big idea of the sermon, we are using illustrations to allow that big idea to gain traction into the lives of our hearers. Jeffery Campbell reminds us:
Illustrations are examples (often stories but not always) that clarify the listener’s understanding of the Scripture. They take abstract truth and bring it into the concrete world by helping the listener experience and apprehend the truth in a tangible way.
– Jeffery Campbell, Illustrating the Sermon, from The Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, page 217
You’ve likely learned more about illustrating sermons since the last time you preached this one. At the very least, you’ve learned more about illustrating this sermon. You witnessed the moments that connected and watched their eyes glaze over in other moments.
Do you recall any of your listeners sharing their own stories after you preached the sermon the previous time? If you do, can you use their stories this time around?
Bring the Application Up to Code
Consider that this sermon’s purpose will differ from the first time you preached it. That would be true if you were guest preaching at a different church or preaching as part of a different series. Also, allow that you have likely grown as a preacher and have a capacity for application you did not possess before.
Holidays are especially times when retreading may be necessary. Given the business of the season and the limitations of direct texts for Advent or the Easter celebrations, you will find yourself within a few years preaching the same texts again. A few years ago, I found myself preaching a Palm Sunday sermon I had previously preached seven years earlier.
Seven years seems like a small span of time, but the changes in society and our congregation in those years led to some very different applications for the sermon.
Additionally, I found that several congregation members still remembered the sermon even after seven years. Rather than complain about the rerun, they appreciated the memories the sermon brought back. Apparently, I had stumbled my way into writing a classic!
“As a result of this message . . .”
Whatever the length of time between the first and second preaching of the sermon, your hearers are not the same, nor is their world. New challenges require fresh application. As you’re retreading the sermon, be sure to seek to finish the sentence, “As a result of this message, my hearers will . . .”
No matter the quality of the original sermon, you now know what a message from the given passage can look like. Return to the original sermon with fresh eyes and a more experienced outlook on the text and task of preaching.
Complete Renovations
Lastly, sometimes, there’s no salvaging an old sermon, but that doesn’t mean scrapping everything. If you researched the passage, dug into the language, and searched out the dominant thought of the text, you’ve laid the groundwork for your next sermon on the same text.
The Sermon of Theseus
After heroically winning the battle with King Minos and slaying the minotaur, King Theseus returned to Athens, where his ship was sailed yearly to commemorate his battle. Over time, sails, masts, and boards were replaced until nothing of the original ship remained.
The question remains: was it still the Ship of Theseus?
Don’t be afraid to retread. It’s not a deadly sin and will not cost you your soul. Instead, it will honor the work you have already done and spur you on to greater depth as you return to the passage more prepared and to the congregation more aware of where the rubber meets the road.
It’s unlikely you would retread a message to the point that it became a “Sermon of Theseus,” but it will always be your sermon. Your heart and soul poured into the message derived from the text, given to the victory of your hearers.
